In addition to the constituents essential for the washing process such as surfactants and builders, detergents generally contain further ingredients which may be grouped together under the heading of washing auxiliaries and thus include various groups of active ingredients such as foam regulators, graying inhibitors, bleaching agents, bleaching activators and enzymes. Such auxiliary substances also include substances which are intended to prevent dyed textiles from having a modified color appearance after washing. This change in color appearance of washed, i.e. clean, textiles may be due, on the one hand, to proportions of the dye being removed from the textile by the washing process (“fading”), and, on the other hand, to dyes dissolved out from differently colored textiles being deposited on the textile (“discoloration”). Change of the discoloration kind may also involve undyed items of washing if these are washed together with colored items of washing. In order to avoid these undesired side-effects of removing dirt from textiles by treatment with conventionally surfactant-containing aqueous systems, detergents, especially when they are intended as “color” detergents for washing colored textiles, contain active ingredients which are intended to prevent the dissolution of dyes from the textile or at least the deposition of dissolved-out dyes present in the washing liquor onto textiles. Many of the polymers conventionally used have such a high affinity for dyes that they draw them to a greater extent from the dyed fiber, such that greater color losses occur.
It has surprisingly now been found that certain aromatic urea derivatives give rise to unexpectedly high dye transfer inhibition if they are used in detergents.
Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description of the invention and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the invention.